Thursday, July 22, 2010

#173 "Essential" Bible guides

Wow, that book is essential? Do you have any documentation on that? Besides Zondervan's, I mean. Was it found with the Dead Sea Scrolls? Was it translated from Greek or Amaraic or Hebrew or from the Vulgate? Was it written on parchment or papyrus? Or maybe on some golden plates found in New York state. Did you have to use special glasses to read it, like Joseph Smith? At what point does Christian culture consider something essential and at which point does it veer into the territory of the Latter-Day Saints' sacred texts? That would be an automatic disqualifer, wouldn't it, as Christian culture has a definite opinion on Mormonism, and it isn't good.

But maybe you didn't mean your book is actually essential to understanding the Bible and the word essential is just for marketing or to emphasize how good you think the book is. If that's all it is then I'm sorry, I misunderstood. But you did say essential.

About Me

"Why do people in church seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? … Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? ...we should all be wearing crash helmets". —Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk